Horses white/turquoise 

Curator: Here we have Małgorzata Serwatka's "Horses white/turquoise," an oil painting presenting a stylized equine scene. Editor: My initial feeling is that it has an ethereal, almost dreamlike quality, despite the relatively simple color palette. The strong horizontal bands across the composition give me a very particular sense of unease and unrest. Curator: Yes, I'd agree about that unease. If we consider the oil paint itself, it seems applied almost hastily, with visible brushstrokes, lending an unfinished, process-oriented feel. The horizontal bands almost compress the figures. Editor: Absolutely. And the artist’s choice of the horse as a subject situates the work within centuries of equestrian artistic tradition, immediately bringing up issues of class, power, and even mythology, and this work both invokes those associations while also subtly critiquing them via the application of the oil paint and compression of those horizontal bands. Curator: Interesting point. Are you reading a disruption of class markers here, a kind of anti-aristocratic symbolism at play by painting with quick marks rather than detailed portraiture? Editor: Precisely! The quick, broad strokes and rather constrained composition undermines the historic grandeur associated with equine portraiture, giving it a very different narrative rooted in contemporary realities of restricted movement and freedom. Also, what's worth noting is the role gender often plays with our engagement with horses as representations of patriarchal dominance, the image being almost aggressively defamiliarized. Curator: That brings a vital layer to the analysis. This painting’s visual tension and process-evident application techniques speak to not only Serwatka's craft, but it makes it really interesting to think how traditional skills could challenge status quo! Editor: Agreed. "Horses white/turquoise" really serves as a visual exploration of identity and challenges to established hierarchies that are well worthy of further exploration!